FILM: 50/50 (dir: Jonathan Levine, 2011)

"Makes you kind of a d*ck."
"Is that, like, a medical term?"

The shortcut reviews of 50/50 claim it is a 'cancer comedy', but the humour is only one aspect of this wonderful film.  By turns harrowing, heartbreaking, joyous and - yes - very funny, the film is just as concerned with the young man who develops a rare form of spinal cancer as it is with the people around him.  50/50 is without doubt Joseph Gordon-Levitt's film (amazingly a short-notice replacement), giving yet another immensely credible and considered performance that marks him out as one of the very best actors of his generation, yet there are many fine performances on display to enjoy: Seth Rogen underplays beautifully and offers fine support as the best friend, Anjelica Huston (curiously underused here) does the Shirley MacLaine-mother-role most effectively, Anna Kendrick is delightful as the naive care worker, and even Bryce Dallas-Howard as the girlfriend's initially seemingly-overplayed characterisation makes perfect sense as her character arc develops.  There is a tendency to resort to cliche at times, which is perhaps unavoidable in the life-threatening-illness genre, from the insipid indie-styled soundtrack to predictable visuals (the close-up chemo drip with a rainy window pane in the background is a standout), but the characters at no point feel false or forced.  Inspired by the writer's own true story and his friendship with Rogen, 50/50 takes the viewer on quite an emotional journey and provides much to admire all round.

FILM: The Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn Part 1 (dir: Bill Condon, 2011)

"You have to accept what it is."

With its core cast intact, the Twilight franchise enters the home straight and finally grows up...a little.  As the saga's story breaks new territory with the wedding, the honeymoon and Bella's accelerated pregnancy, Bill Condon's direction is reliably assured (and even manages to get in a nice Bride of Frankenstein reference), but unfortunately the combination of a relentlessly soporific soundtrack and a heavy-handed script (which could use some serious editing) robs the film of much of its potential dramatic tension, leaving a lot of flat melodrama in its wake.  Some of the humour works well - Jacob's reaction to Bella's female baby-name suggestion is priceless - but there are also many unintended laughs as well.  Pattinson and Lautner remain adequate in their limited roles, but this time out Pattinson shows some genuine moments of tenderness in the relationship with Bella, and Lautner manages more than merely looking puzzled.  The surprising revelation in Breaking Dawn Part 1 is Kristen Stewart, who - from the outset - gives a less restrained and more mature performance which makes Bella a much more engaging character than in the previous films.  Nevertheless, the final showdown comes across well, and the infamous birth scene is handled effectively, but overall this installment is a step back from the action and darker tone which made Eclipse more enjoyable for non-fans.  A thought to consider: as directors, would Bill Condon's style have been more suited to the original Twilight film, and Catherine Hardwicke to Breaking Dawn Part 1?

FILM: Arthur Christmas 3D (dir: Sarah Smith, 2011)

"You bring a genuine aura of seasonal positivity."

Largely thanks to James McAvoy's quite brilliant voicework and the accompanying animation of the awkward, naive and joyous title character, Arthur Christmas is an absolute delight from start to finish.  It starts off at a blistering pace, and the story flits betweeen quite demented silliness and touching moments with confidence and spirit.  Nods to other movies come thick and fast, including the wonderful visual conceit of Santa's latest sleigh resembling a cross between Star Trek's Enterprise and the ships from Independence Day.  The 3D is used to convey a terrific sense of space and scale, and visually the film is frequently beautiful.  It was interesting to note that adults in the audience were laughing more than the children, and this was probably largely owing to the fully-realised screenplay and the sheer pace of the story.  Arthur Christmas is packed with ideas, inventively realised and hugely enjoyable.

FILM: Immortals 3D (dir: Tarsem Singh, 2011)

"Witness Hell!"

Immortals is very clearly a Tarsem Singh film - at times it does look like the cast of 300 has wandered into the more out-there scenes in The Cell - and as a result it is visually interesting, dramatically flat (it lurches rather than flows) and remarkably tedious.  Delivery of dialogue is generally painfully low-key in spite of a number of good performances: Mickey Rourke has real presence as the bad guy; Frieda Pinto provides rare and surprising moments of warmth; Stephen Dorff, Luke Evans, Kellan Lutz and Joseph Morgan provide more-than-adequate support; and Henry Cavill is a stoic and committed lead.  Thankfully, the film delivers a lively (and squelchy) final showdown, but Immortals is definitely a case of artistry over entertainment.

FILM: In Time (Dir: Andrew Niccol, 2011)

"Was I going too fast?"
"Not fast enough."

In a reverse Logan's Run conceit, the core narrative idea that everyone stops ageing at 25 but have to earn or buy time is simple but works well, providing in-built tension through numerous countdowns and the giving-taking of time to stay alive.  However, this is tied to a timely anti-capitalist metaphor which - whilst uncomfortable and thought-provoking - proves a little too fuzzy, as Niccol's controlled style provides beautifully-composed shots but smooths out any real edge, particularly with respect to the antagonists.  Timberlake and Seyfried both do a lot of good work in this movie, but there are also noteworthy performances by Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde and - shaking off his sit-com day-job's one-note turn - Johnny Galecki showing what a nuanced actor he can be.  Craig Armstrong provides a glorious soundtrack (that at times wonderfully echoes Vangelis's Blade Runner score), and there are some good (if brief) action sequences amongst the somewhat stagey duologue scenes.  In Time is generally worthy, well-made and entertaining, but it lacks the spark to let it really take off.

FILM: Tower Heist (dir: Brett Ratner, 2011)

"The maid's gone rogue!"

Unusually for a vehicle with such big stars, Tower Heist came in under the radar and turns out to be a fairly entertaining if rather underwhelming comedy.  For two-thirds of its running time, Tower Heist proves inconsistent, with occasionally successful humour and achieving varying levels of piquing audience interest, but the actual heist has many wonderfully daft and ridiculous moments with a bold and successful final pay-off.  The eclectic cast gels well, with Stiller playing a good 'straight man' and Murphy almost being let off the leash and showing flashes of his old style.  At its heart, Tower Height seems to want to be a joyous 1960s-style crime-comedy caper, but director Ratner and the script both lack the lightness of touch and the consistent flow that the film would need to achieve that.

FILM: Contagion (dir: Steven Soderbergh, 2011)

"Blogging is not writing - it's graffiti with punctuation."

Contagion takes  the well-worn pandemic scenario and presents it in a cool, compelling and matter-of-fact way, taking the viewer on a hard-hitting and credible journey pieced together from a variety of angles.  Director Soderbergh (at times seeming to channel Fincher) deftly juxtaposes the growing global medical and social crises with the way it isolates everyone from  individuals' fear of others to the lonely task of the scientists trying to find a solution, making the developing story both frightening and heartbreaking.  The starry ensemble cast is uniformly great, making Contagion a relentlessly grim but wonderfully-executed movie.

FILM: The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of The Unicorn 3D (dir: Steven Spielberg, 2011)

"I'd rather you kept your trousers on, if it's all the same to you."

Perhaps the best aspect of this 2011 take on Tintin is that it is pitched as a resolutely old-fashioned rollicking adventure, whose only real concession to modern audiences is the huge-scale frantic action sequences.  The film creates a visually rich and detailed world of its own, retaining the charm and simplicity of Herge's style and making it a very easy film to watch and to enjoy.  The problems of movement and weight for the mo-capped characters are largely overcome, and the delightful performances - Bell, Craig, Pegg and Frost, Serkis - actually shine through the pixels.  There is some truly staggering virtual cinematography on display supported by the excellent use of 3D, in particular the low-level shots in the early pickpocket chase and the inventive pirate ship attack, and a number of match transitions are handled creatively.  John Williams is clearly having fun with his eclectic score, and Spielberg demonstrates again that he is a master craftsman in yet another cinematic field.  As well as a few Spielbergian trademarks along the way, there is even a nice visual reference to Jaws (think Tintin's trademark haircut).  The Adventures of Tintin feels very different to the majority of recent CG-animations, as did Pixar's The Incredibles, and as a result provides enchanting and quite innocent entertainment.

FILM: Paranormal Activity 3 (dirs: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, 2011)

"When are you gonna stop taping us?"

The silliest of franchises - the cinematic equivalent of paying to watch your kitchen and someone popping up and shouting 'BOO!' every twenty minutes - reaches its third (annual) installment and scores the biggest horror opening ever in the USA.  Apart from a self-conscious near-contemporary prologue to bring in the two supernaturally-hounded sisters and set up the VHS-taped found-footage conceit, this film is set in 1988 and attempts to show what happened in their childhood that led up to numbers 1 and 2.  In its favour, Paranormal Activity 3 is more playful and slightly less clinical than its predecessors, and the scarce subsidiary characters are better served, but this film follows the franchise's own conventions and visual/aural language to the letter and therefore does little to either shock or surprise.  The last ten minutes, however - in a desperate attempt to explain the series - is an extraordinary grab-bag of Blair Witch, Poltergeist and Halloween 6, which not only undermines the sisters' stories in the previous two films but also shows how ridiculous the concept has become.

DVD: Tucker and Dale vs Evil (dir: Eli Craig, 2011)

"We have had a doozie of a day!"

This may have gone straight to DVD in the UK and shot quickly and cheaply, but Tucker and Dale vs Evil is made and performed with real attention and love of the genre.  It is a delightfully daft story of misrepresentations and misinterpretations that unwittingly pits two hillbillies (wonderfully played by Tyler Labine and the ever-brilliant Alan Tudyk) against vacationing college kids in an escalating and deadly battle which neither of the parties realise is completely unnecessary.  Tucker and Dale is one of the best-written and best-realised double-acts of recent times, the script is mostly cleverly-constructed and very wry (co-written by director Eli Craig), and amongst the general humour are a couple of genuine laugh-out-loud moments (the woodchipper scene is simply comedy genius).  The low budget clearly shows in the limited locations and the sometimes flat TV-style shooting, and the final act does not quite hit the heights of the rest of the film, but Tucker and Dale... is well-crafted, hugely enjoyable and very entertaining.